Categories: Missionssun

Dancing Plasma on the Sun

This video from the Solar Dynamics Observatory shows about 18 hours worth of a stellar show of suspended plasma from the Sun. Lofted in twisted magnetic fields, the hot plasma structure is several times the size of planet Earth.

The SDO team explains that prominences are huge clouds of relatively cool dense plasma suspended in the Sun’s hot, thin corona. At times, they can erupt, escaping the Sun’s atmosphere. Emission in this spectral line shows the upper chromosphere at a temperature of about 50,000 K (or 90,000 degrees F). Magnetic fields built up enormous forces that propelled particles out beyond the Sun’s surface.

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy has been with Universe Today since 2004, and has published over 6,000 articles on space exploration, astronomy, science and technology. She is the author of two books: "Eight Years to the Moon: the History of the Apollo Missions," (2019) which shares the stories of 60 engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make landing on the Moon possible; and "Incredible Stories from Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos" (2016) tells the stories of those who work on NASA's robotic missions to explore the Solar System and beyond. Follow Nancy on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Nancy_A and and Instagram at and https://www.instagram.com/nancyatkinson_ut/